SB 1187 Narrows Recent Brown Act Requirements Established by SB 707

Less than two years after SB 707 significantly expanded Brown Act accessibility requirements, the California Legislature enacted SB 1187 to scale back several of the implemented changes. SB 707 added Government Code § 54953.4, which imposed numerous requirements relating to remote access, language assistance, and public meeting information. SB 1187 narrows those requirements by removing several provisions that local agencies identified as burdensome to implement.

Who Is Affected?

SB 707 and SB 1187 apply only to “eligible legislative bodies” as defined in Government Code § 54953.4. Generally, the term includes certain local legislative bodies that meet specified statutory population, employee, and revenue thresholds. Agencies should review the statutory definition to determine whether they qualify as an eligible legislative body and are subject to these requirements.

Requirements Eliminated By SB 1187

SB 1187 removes requirements that eligible legislative bodies:

• Assist members of the public with obtaining or providing interpretation services during meetings;
• Publicize the availability of interpretation-related accommodations;
• Maintain an electronic system for requesting agendas and meeting materials;
• Provide a dedicated public meetings webpage and associated homepage links;
• Translate meeting agendas into applicable languages;
• Translate public meeting webpages into applicable languages; and
• Provide a physical space for members of the public to post translated agendas.

As a result, eligible legislative bodies are no longer required to implement or maintain these language-access and meeting-information measures.

Requirements That Remain In Effect

The foregoing provisions are the requirements of Government Code § 54953.4 that remain in effect following SB 1187’s amendments:

• Providing public access to open meetings through a two-way telephonic service or two-way audiovisual platform;
• Adopting policies addressing telephonic or internet service disruptions during meetings;
• Recessing meetings and following specified procedures when remote access disruptions occur;
• Making required findings before reconvening a meeting when service cannot be restored;
• Providing call-in access and automatic captioning functions when using audiovisual platforms;
• Allowing remote attendees to provide public comment on the same terms as in-person attendees; and
• Making reasonable efforts to encourage participation by community groups and organizations that do not traditionally participate in public meetings.

Conclusion

While SB 1187 reduces several of the language-access and administrative obligations imposed by SB 707, many public participation and accessibility requirements remain. Agencies may wish to review Brown Act compliance policies in response to SB 707, update internal procedures and training materials to reflect SB 1187, evaluate whether any voluntary language-access measures should be retained, and confirm that meeting practices continue to comply with remaining Brown Act requirements.